The World

If there's anything the French like less than drinking water with meals, it's paying taxes, Dodging the tax collector is almost a national sport. But last week Frenchmen took a more serious view of the game because of charges that their Premier, Jacques Chaban‐Delmas, might be playing it.

A public scandal was beginning to swirl around the breezy Gaullist leader who is considered a likely successor to President Pompidou. Two weeks ago the leftist satirical weekly Le Canard Enchaine charged that Mr. Chaban‐Delmas had used loopholes in the tax credit system to avoid income taxes for 1966 through 1970 when he was Speaker of the National Assembly.

While nobody actually accused the Premier of acting illegally, the leftist opposition took up the cry last week and even usually friendly commentators called for an explanation. But the Premier's office confined itself to calling the charges “sensational” and noting that the Premier had not been accused of fraud.

The Chaban‐Delmas affair followed a series of similar charges involving persons in or close to the ruling majority, prompting the Communists and Socialists to say the whole business was another example of capitalism rewarding its own. “The scandal lies in a system by which there is a close link between money and political power,” said Robert Ballanger, a Communist party leader.

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